Ford delighted to see Puritans get back to winning ways

Banbury United's Greg Kaziboni races away from Stourbridge's Chay Tilt as Charlie Hawtin looks on during Saturday's victory. Photo: Steve Prouse

The Puritans beat Stourbridge 2-0 in Saturday's BetVictor Southern League clash at the Banbury Plant Hire Community Stadium.

Goals in each half from Ravi Shamsi, with his sixth since rejoining the club, and skipper Ricky Johnson earned the Puritans all three Premier Central points. Stourbridge had what they thought was an equaliser chalked off for offside and Jack Harding made sure United also kept a clean sheet with a superb penalty save in stoppage-time from substitute Andre Landell.

Ford said: "I thought 2-0 was a fair result and I can't imagine too many people not agreeing with that. Both sides tried to play in difficult conditions.

"Stourbridge are always a difficult team to play against and I'm sure they've still got the top two as their target, we've got our sights set on finishing as high as we can.

"The victory was the most important thing, that will give us a huge lift. We played well, played some good attacking football and got two good goals.

"The first goal was so important, that took us into halftime with the lead. The goal they had disallowed always looked offside to me from the outset so I'm sure it was the right decision, their bench were not happy because the assistant didn't flag for it initially.

"We got up the pitch as the second half progressed, we had a big decision go in our favour, we had a good spell and got that vital second goal. For me it was never a penalty, there were too many bodies in the box, but Jack [Harding] has pulled off a great save.

"We got out of Luke Fairlamb what I thought we would, he's strong, has good ability on the ball, works hard and is able to beat his marker. It would have been great for him to have scored in the second half but he's only been able to train with us once so far. For him to make a debut like that was very pleasing, especially for Luke.

"Ravi Shamsi took his goal really well. I had a long chat with him before the game about how his career can improve and what he needs to do, and I think he reacted well to that conversation. Ricky Johnson put in a huge shift and it was great for him to get the second goal."